Monthly Archives: December 2018

A lot of self-published authors create their own book covers. We all know a professional and eye-catching book cover design is key to book sales, but this can be hard if you’re not a professional designer.

Whatever topic you write about, you’ve probably seen a lot of ideas that have already been done to death.

If you’re in the weight loss niche, you might have seen a dozen posts on “How to beat the weight loss plateau”. If you’re in the freelancing niche, you’ve probably come across quite a lot of advice on “Should you charge per project or per hour?”. And if you blog about pregnancy and babies, you’ve probably read post after post about “Why breastmilk is better than formula”.

The problem is, you may also want to cover these well-worn ideas. Perhaps your readers have asked for a post on that particular topic, or maybe you want to make sure your beginner-friendly blog covers all the basics.

Of course, this is where I reassure you that your post will be different because you’ll be bringing your unique voice and perspective to it. (After all, that’s the advice I read time and time again when I started blogging.)

But while that’s true to a degree, I’ve read a lot of posts over the years across various niches that all seemed a bit too derivative.

Without a strategy in mind, it’s all too easy to write a post that just summarises other posts you’ve read on the topic. It ends up bland and boring, or skates over a topic without really giving any new insights.

So how can you offer something more for your readers? Well, I’m going to cover three options in this post, although I’m sure there are plenty more. You could:

Use an analogy to make your post more engaging

Acknowledge the other posts out there and subvert them

Go much deeper into a particular topic than most people do

(If you’ve got other ideas for adding value to a well-worn idea, please share them with us in the comments.)

As the internet continues to get stuffed full of content, brands need to work harder than ever to break through the clutter and connect with people online. You know how to get your message into news feeds through methods like targeting, paid campaigns, boosted posts, or working with influencers. But once you get in front of people, is your message actually having an impact, and creating connections with your audience like you hope?

Influencers and brands alike are getting caught trying too hard online. Influencers are crying in posts and then getting called out for “like-fishing. Celebrities are posting that they’ve never had cereal before. Brands are posting overly photoshopped bodies…

Your followers can spot inauthenticity from a mile away.

We connect most with content that is real, and people are catching on to content that isn’t authentic.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Now, authentic is a word that the kids are throwing around a lot these days. But it’s not just a trendy phrase to use at your next networking event. By definition, authenticity is being real, or genuine. This is definitely what you should be trying for on social.

Even though everyone plays the whole keeping-up-appearances game on social media, authenticity comes naturally to a lot of people on their personal profiles—even if they aren’t being entirely authentic.

That authenticity comes because they’re sharing content that is real life, and even though we curate our feeds, contrive our captions, and share only our best moments, we’re still sharing our real lives.

Brands have an entirely different challenge keeping it real online because they’re not people. They can’t just post a 37-part instagram story of a concert and bam—make you feel like you’re a part of their life.

So, how should brands keep things authentic on social and connect with their audience in real, long-lasting ways? Here are a few tips.

A decrease in online user engagement is a significant and growing problem for businesses…

The methods for finding and connecting with your ideal audience in a digital world are evolving by the day, hour, minute.

The internet was once a place of relative simplicity. Creating a website was enough to help you stand out from competitors, generate qualified leads, and close more deals.

But as more of the world’s population accessed this revolutionary technology, expectations began to grow. Websites became better and better at understanding the intuitive behaviors of visitors and guiding them on a journey from a complete stranger through to an engaged customer.

Social media came along, and things changed again. Then there was content marketing, live video, chatbots, AI, and an array of fast-moving progressions that has left many online businesses scrambling to stay afloat.

Given the rapid speed at which things change in a digital world, if you take your eye off the ball for a moment, your digital strategy might come crashing down around you. A marketing tactic that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Or a website engagement technique that used to entice your visitors to connect may simply frustrate them and encourage them to leave your site.

So how do you fight back? How do you learn, adapt, and change your approach to online user engagement so your prospects want to stick around and see what you have to say?

Do you need to improve your LinkedIn marketing? Wondering which content types will perform best for you? In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step process to help you create a LinkedIn content marketing plan. Why Content Marketing on LinkedIn Deserves a Second Look LinkedIn is a thriving community of more than 500 million members around …

The more educated a customer is about a product, the more they’ll understand what they are looking for—and therefore be more likely to buy it.

Imagine a reader who thinks they like science fiction books, as compared to one that can specifically tell you they love sci-fi military space marine adventures. The latter is more likely to know what they are looking for and quicker to buy the book when they see it.

While more people may type “science fiction” into Amazon’s search box, there is more money being made (per search) for the phrase “sci-fi military” and even more for “space marine adventures.”

Readers start their journey in a very broad sense, and over time, as they gain experience and understand more about what they are looking for, they refine their searches. By understanding the awareness level of a reader, we can better position our books or better craft content on our author websites that not only brings in more potential readers, but helps convert them into long-term fans. This all begins with the understanding of the five levels of awareness.

If one of your social media goals involves figuring out how to get followers on Pinterest, you’ll want to Pin this guide.

Pinterest is all about inspiration and discovery. That means it’s not only a great way to connect with current customers; it’s a great place to find new followers—especially since Pinterest passed the 250 million monthly active user mark. More than 70 percent of Pinners find new brands on Pinterest, and 78 percent say they find brand content useful.

Factor in Pinterest’s sales power—it’s the number one shopping platform among millennials—and knowing how to get more Pinterest followers becomes an even greater value proposition. Follow this step-by-step guide to pin your sights on success.

Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to make money on Pinterest in six easy steps using the tools you already have.

As small businesses continue to invest heavily in content marketing, content creation has seen an exponential rise. The average length of a blog post for seeing “strong” results is now over 1000 words.

However, most content still sits in the deep corners of the internet and goes unnoticed. Ahrefs found that 91% of content doesn’t get any organic traffic from Google.

You don’t need to get disheartened, though.

Instead, you need to create a fail-proof content distribution strategy that ensures visibility for every piece you publish.

Forbes Top 10 B2B marketer Aaron Orendorff spends 25% of his time to promote his content. In 2018, you need to take content distribution seriously for the success of your content marketing campaigns.

Today, let’s look at how to create a distribution strategy from scratch.